A cubic spline is made of piecewise third‐order polynomials, with continuity, and interpolates each of the points it is created from. The second derivative of the spline at the endpoints is set to 0.

A Bézier spline interpolates only the endpoints. The other points control the spline, forming a convex hull. Given n points, a spline of degree is created.

A composite Bézier spline is made up of a series of third‐order Bézier curves with continuity. It alternates interpolating points and control points.

In a composite Bézier spline generated from an even number of points the last two points are reversed so that the final point is interpolated and the next to last is a control point for the final segment; if the spline is generated from an odd number of points, then the final vertex is doubled.